to tie, fasten, connect, relate

 differ in pronunciation, they have long been used interchangeably, and in Simplified Chinese, the two were merged under 

It is a phono-semantic compound made up of:


human, person

 (인, “person”) — providing the meaning (something involving people);


 (계, “to connect, system”) — providing the sound.
The Shuowen Jiezi (説文解字 shuōwén jiězì) explains it as “that which ties one person to another.” From this, the meaning expanded to “to be related to” or “to have a connection with.”

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

law, rule, regulation, example, instance, precedent, model

to serve, to attend

to offer, to supply, to provide, to serve

to rely on, to depend on, to lean on

to despise, to insult

to invade, infringe, encroach upon, or intrude, to erode or gradually affect

companion, partner, mate, friend

convenient, comfortable, excrement

to tie, to be tied, to connect, to relate

to urge, hasten

custom, common, vulgar

to protect, preserve, keep

to trust, to believe, to be true

to repair, to revise, to cultivate, to build, to refine

together, all, without exception

actor, performer, entertainer

official salary, stipend

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Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

Chinese characters (Hanja)

Chinese characters dictionary

係

Etymology

Words that derived from 係

Additional notes

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

References